She leaned over his right shoulder so he could see her breasts and feel the warmth of her body. The bubble gum smell envolved him.

When he entered the foyer something startled him and his heartbeat raced for a moment. He stopped and looked carefully around but could not pin point what was the reason of his anxiety. He went to the kitchen and put water to boil in a kettle to make some tea and relax. Steve turned on the TV. He tried to avoid the dumb box, he knew himself to be an addict but he wanted some noise and activity so the house will not feel so empty. He tuned CNN to check the news and the weather. They were showing a perfume commercial and suddenly realized what was been bothering him since he entered the foyer: The bubble gum smell! A chill run through his spine and his whole body tensed.

– Michele was in the house! No, please. What? From where was the smell coming from?

He sniffed and he seemed to perceive a hint of the smell but started to question whether the smell was really there or a memory, a ghost from the past.

-When was the first time I noticed the perfume? Oh yes. I was sitting on the library.

She leaned over his right shoulder so he could see her breasts and feel the warmth of her body. The bubble gum smell involved him. She asked him about the Shell Sort program, basically to write the program for her. At first his mind was busy flashing images of a foggy bedroom and his hand feeling smooth and firm skin, surprisingly hot, but after some initial stuttering and incoherency he got into the program and he was lost in another world, this one serene. But getting the code was not enough for Michele. She got Steve to write the actual report and make the test runs for her. After that, Steve was doing Michele schoolwork full time to the point that he was flunking the Complier class that required the time he was spending being abused.

Steve remembered how, even though he did not smoke at all, he finish a cigarette to calm down and call Michele for a date. How, to his surprise, he actually felt more at ease after the cigarette and muster enough courage to make the call. How, yet again to his surprise, Michele accepted right away. He went to pick her up on the Golf, the Wolfsburg edition, with the wide headlamps.

– What a beautiful car!

She said at first, but when she got inside she remarked: oh! It’s a rabbit!

He took her to a movie theater, couldn’t remember the name or the movie, where you could drink beer and eat while watching the show. Michele drank two pitchers all by herself. When he took her back to the house where she lived by herself Steve went where he had never gone before. As smooth as things went, he couldn’t get another date with Michele and he could see her around with the good looking guys. She would actually come and visit him and confide how her boyfriends treat her like shit. Steve resigned himself to be Michele best girlfriend and went on.

When Steve was graduating, he got a job in San Antonio with General Dynamics for 60K and the future looked very bright for him. The night before he was leaving, Michele came crying and drunk and told him that she loved him and wanted to get married. Next thing he knew, she was fucking him hard.

Steve agreed to marry more out of distaste of nasty violent arguments than of real conviction but once he accepted he was committed to make the marriage work.

– Hey, Steve!

Steve jumped in his seat but did not turn. Maybe he was hallucinating but did not want to confirm it.

– Hey, Steve!

Steve turned slowly and there she was.

– What are YOU doing here?
– What do mean what I am doing here? I live here.
– You live here? What?
– Stevy, Stevy…
– How’s Nell?
– What are you doing here?
– Stevy… I live here
– Craig Forbes told me to spend the afternoon here. He said it is house and that nobody would be here. That he wanted me to check that things were alright.
– He doesn’t know I’m here. I wanted to surprise him. But, now here you are! I love you, Stevy!
– What do you want? You were the one that left.
– That was just an adventure Stevy, but I love you and I want to have Nell back.
– What for? You never spend any time with her. You lost your rights when you left.

The house was empty. That was no unusual but he had an uneasy feeling. He took Nell to her bedroom. He went to the kitchen and put water to boil in a kettle to make some tea and relax. He noticed a piece of paper on the kitchen table with a cleaver knife on top as a paperweight:

Stevy:
I love you dear, but a woman has needs and life with you is so dull.
Tell Nell that mommy is on a trip but will be back soon

Steve reported Michele missing to authorities. It turned out she was safe and sound with Extreme guitarist Neal Dickson in Tennessee, where the band has a gig. Steve felt humiliated, especially when Dickson send him a photo of genitalia presumed to belong to the guitarist. He cited adultery and abandonment as the reason for the divorce.

Once he made the decision to divorce, he felt pretty good actually and right away. Immediately actually. He felt calm and at peace. He did fell the sting of the humiliation and the failing of the marriage, but he was actually happy to get rid of Michele and the bad influence that she was for Nell. So when Michele came back it was his worst nightmare come true.

When he entered the foyer something startled him and his heartbeat raced for a moment. He stopped and looked carefully around but could not pin point what was the reason of his anxiety. He took Nell to her bedroom. He went to the kitchen and put water to boil in a kettle to make some tea and relax. Steve turned on the TV. He tried to avoid the dumb box, he knew himself to be an addict but he wanted some noise and activity so the house will not feel so empty. He tuned CNN to check the news and the weather. They were showing a perfume commercial and suddenly realized what was been bothering him since he entered the foyer: The bubble gum smell! A chill run through his spine and his whole body tensed.

– Michele was in the house! No, please. What? From where was the smell coming from?

He sniffed and he seemed to perceive a hint of the smell but started to question whether the smell was really there or a memory, a ghost from the past.

-When was the first time I noticed the perfume? Oh yes. I was sitting on the library.
– Hey, Steve!

Steve jumped in his seat and burn himself with the hot tea but did not even noticed.

– Hey, Steve!

Steve turned slowly and there she was

– What are you doing HERE?
– What do mean what I am doing here? I live here.
– You live here? What?
– Stevy, Stevy…
– How’s Nell?
– What are you doing here?
– Stevy… I live here

Many people suggested he changed the door blots but he didn’t really think that Michele was ever to come back and although he thought about it, he let it pass and forgot the issue completely. Michele was the nagging wife type and would flare burst of uncalled bad temper but Steve had never discussed or even had an argument with her before and this was new ground for him.

– You do NOT live here anymore! You left!
– That was just an adventure Stevy, but I love you and I want to have Nell back.
– What for? You are a bad influence for her.

Michele tilted her head to the right and drove her fingers thru her hear. With a provocative smile she came close to Steve. Steve took at step back and she kicked him in the shin. He bent to touch the sore knee and she pulled him from the hair hard toward the ground. He was not expecting it, lost his balance, and hit the floor full force with the face. He saw a bright flash, and then a dark fog filled the room. When he fog lifted, Michele was gone.

Steve walked toward the main door and Michele grabs his left arm. He jerked the arm from her and in a continuous motion he hit her right below the nose. She took a step back, flipped, and felt to the floor face down.

– Shit! She gone sue me! She gonna take Nell

He felt the fear and the rage warming his body and take over his mind. He took a deep breath. He felt like he was out of his body, watching himself from the outside and wandering what he was going to do. He watched himself go to the kitchen, and look for something. Inside the fridge he took a plastic bag with vegetables, empty the bag, and went back to the living room.

– No, Steve, don’t!

He put the bag on Michele’s head and sat on top of her holding and closing the bag at her neck. She regained consciousness when she started to suffocate and struggled some but after awhile she became still. Steve’s body joined him in the couch and stayed there.

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I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret.

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